IN LIMBO

The district has postponed our move out of the trailers for the second time in two weeks. To put it mildly, we science teachers are not happy.

I've previously posted about this, and you can read about the trials and tribulations of what is called 'modernization' by clicking on posts with the label 'The Classroom (Ugh)'. There's even a video in one of the posts which tries to humorously contrast the situation I'm in with a past of negligence and (hopefully) a better future. Next year, in Jerusalem!

MOM WEIGHS IN

My mom, responding to an earlier post, wants me to know she is still casting her lot with the Senator from Arizona, contra yours truly.

I love my Mom, and I want any readers to know I don't bear any animus to most Republicans, even the aggressive ones who are having conniption fits with reality. It's observably true that John McCain has found himself in a campaign that's at odds with his values, and it's also a shame that people on both sides of the aisles often forget that the values (as oppossed to the policies) of the opposition party are not necessarily at odds with our own values. In a perfect world, limited government would be better than a bloated, centralized bureaucracy for a host of reasons. I prefer to be around folk who accept responsibility for their actions, rather than leech off working people and taxpayers. As a Christian, I do believe that there are places in our society where a confession of faith is seen as an admission of guilt, and I don't care for that. So, I can sympathize with people who hold these values, and others that tend to be emphasized more by the GOP than Democrats.

Besides, if I had an adversarial frame of mind toward Republicans in general, I think I would succumb pretty quickly to a siege mentality. CSU Fresno and the schools are blue blemishes on Fresno County's rosy-red cheeks.

'ORIGINS' CONFERENCE: PRELUDE

I recently attended the 'Origins' conference at Cal Tech sponsored by Michael Shermer and the Skeptics Society, along with a little seed money from the Templeton Foundation. PZ has opined that their participation taints the affair some what, and I have to admit that there was a profound difference in the character and utility of the 'debates' sponsored by the latter in the afternoon session as compared to the morning's scientific lectures. It was a weird and unsettling experience, which I will post about soon enough. There were kooks present in the afternoon on both sides of the science-religion divide, as well as a need for better fact-checking.

Anyway, I thought it would be helpful to blog about the various parts of the conference, and I'm hoping to get some of the great minds involved to forward stuff about their presentations which I can then link to in my posts. I had originally intended to attend with a skeptical friend of mine, one of the officers of CVAAS* , but this became impossible for my friend due to other commitments, among them attending and supporting James Randi's lecture at CSU Fresno on Thursday, October 2nd. I had the good fortune to join members of CVAAS in having breakfast with the magician and founder of JREF at the Marie Callender's across the street from CSUF on Thursday morning, and a good time was had by all. Randi was a colorful and engaging personality, and he had a lot of good stories to share about past and present friends and foes of skeptical thinking. A fellow CVAAS member snapped a picture with both of us in it, and I present (in the interest of complete disclosure) a slightly-tweaked version of that below: **



*If you live in the Central Valley of California, why not click on this link and consider checking the organization out?

** It was originally a lot bigger image, Randi was more in the foreground, and I had a flower coming out of my head courtesy of the print on the wall.